CLAUDIA'S CAMPAIGN

CLAUDIA SCHIFFER has lent her voice to a TV ad to raise money for Germany's Holocaust Memorial, due for completion in 2004. The 31-year-old German supermodel approached the foundation behind the memorial after seeing a billboard campaign for it in Berlin. Her voice has featured on the ad for the last two weeks, but organisers say it will be another two weeks before they can tell what effect it has had on donations to the project. The model herself does not appear in the campaign, which has so far raised €600,000, as it was feared that her face might take the focus away from the monument. "She was keen to demonstrate that this was a matter of personal opinion and not something to do with appearance," explains Thekla Heinike, who designed the campaign. In the TV ad, words associated with the project - such as "monument" and "Holocaust" - move across the screen as Schiffer explains that the memorial is one of the most public ways her countrymen can confront the legacy of the Nazi era. Officials chose the site of the memorial, in the centre of Berlin, nearly three years ago, but since then the project has been subject to a number of delays. Construction has now been put back until next spring, with the opening scheduled for the second half of 2004. (November 19 2002, AM)